How dismissal of Permanent Secretaries happens. By @ukcivilservant.bsky.social
www.civilservant.org.uk/information-...

I've had similar conversations in the past and my response was always the same.

"Get your boss to put that in writing and sign it."

They never do.

The committee doesn't understand what Olly is saying, he's doing a good job holding it in. He keeps explaining and they keep not listening.

Olly is not doing great.

We seem to be going down the Civil Service at its worst rabbit hole.

Obsession with process which nobody understands let alone can say if fit for purpose.

Vibes based decision making without nailing down who and why.

And the secret ministry of fear ruling all.

The take away from Olly's session is that you need to keep the receipts for everything.

If all you have are vibes then essentially you are just standing in Piccadilly Circus with a megaphone complaining about The Man.

DOCUMENT EVERYTHING, TRUST NOBODY.

"An organisation which still regards doctors' email addresses as state secrets has much to learn about modern communications": An eye-wateringly sad and angry story from @rorycj.bsky.social

"Yes, Minister" This may be premature but … it is beginning to look as if Olly Robbins and Antonia Romeo were both exhibiting classic Mandarin behaviour by attempting to please the Prime Minister whatever the consequ...

The Mandelson saga demonstrates, yet again, that 'Yes Minister' was more documentary than comedy:-
ukcivilservant.substack.com/p/yes-minister

Once upon a time there was a ruler who made a bad decision. All the courtiers and servants knew it was a bad decision, but they put into effect the bad decision, for the ruler had already made and proclaimed the decision. And when it turned out to be a very bad decision indeed, those courtiers and servants were sacked by the now “furious” ruler.

The decision of a Prime Minister

Only one person decided to appoint Lord Mandelson

The Empty City blog

emptycity.substack.com/p/the-decisi...

"Yes, Minister" This may be premature but … it is beginning to look as if Olly Robbins and Antonia Romeo were both exhibiting classic Mandarin behaviour by attempting to please the Prime Minister whatever the consequ...

The Mandelson saga demonstrates, yet again, that 'Yes Minister' was more documentary than comedy:-
ukcivilservant.substack.com/p/yes-minister

Three weeks to publication of geni.us/PeaceMakers. This week’s🧵is on the women of the Foreign Office in WWII. They were barred from joining the ‘administrative grade’: the senior staff/policymakers. Many hundreds joined the FO in support functions like typing. BUT 1/6

Government security vetting | Institute for Government How does the UK government's national security vetting system work?

With the Peter Mandelson appointment as UK ambassador to the US back in the headlines, it's worth understanding how the UK government's national security vetting system actually works.

Our explainer sets out the process:

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/go...

And the EU will not let us back in until there is a strong pro-re-entry political consensus here in the UK. They will not want to re-live the first two decades of this Century with Farage et al (or their successors) mounting another Brexit campaign.

Antonia Romeo’s Objectives are Surprising - and Welcome I must admit that I initially responded rather negatively to the new Cabinet Secretary’s objectives, published a few days ago.

The new Cabinet Secretary's objectives are interesting and generally welcome - and contain a surprising constitutional element. My commentary is here:-
ukcivilservant.substack.com/p/antonia-ro...

In which an American wonders why her daughter's 20-minute tonsil/adenoid operation costs $108,447.46 while Brits in the comments complain about parking fees (£12!!) when having the same surgery for free

vm.tiktok.com/ZNRVjrM3a/

Interesting, enlightening peek into the lives of London's front line police officers:-
www.forkingpaths.co/p/three-days...

Antonia Romeo’s Objectives are Surprising - and Welcome I must admit that I initially responded rather negatively to the new Cabinet Secretary’s objectives, published a few days ago.

The new Cabinet Secretary's objectives are interesting and generally welcome - and contain a surprising constitutional element. My commentary is here:-
ukcivilservant.substack.com/p/antonia-ro...

Happy (Orthodox) Easter from President Trump,
via heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-12-2...

😂😂😂

How to ration fuel I hope this post is never useful...

Fuel Rationing:- Tim Leunig is a never-ending source of clever and sensible policy ideas. Here's another one:-
timleunig.substack.com/p/how-to-rat...

Peter Magyar's rally is literally lit 😄

Regulation: Compliance, Enforcement and Social Media This is the fourth and final of this flurry of Substacks abut Regulation.

Regulation: Some thoughts on compliance and enforcement - and ministers' 'Short Memory Syndrome':
ukcivilservant.substack.com/p/regulation...

I spent longer negotiating quite trivial commercial contracts

Rightmove, iPhones, Vets & Fuel Prices This is the third of a little flurry of four Substack newsletters focussing on Regulation. The first - Degrading of Competition Enforcement - is here. The second - Controlling the Flow of Regulation -...

Rightmove, iPhones, Vets & Fuel Prices; three current, lively competition issues:-
ukcivilservant.substack.com/p/rightmove-...

When a person loses 1 sense the others are heightened. That's why people who have no sense of humor have an amazing sense of self-importance.

Controlling the Flow of Regulation The Future of the Regulatory Policy Committee

Can the Government seriously be thinking of scrapping independent scrutiny of proposed regulation?
(+ Valuable @re-state.bsky.social report on deregulation):-
ukcivilservant.substack.com/p/controllin...

Mark Rutte's time as head of NATO is not dissimilar to his time as PM in that he seems to think it is extremely sensible to keep playing footsy with far right leaders and that this will lead to no negative consequences whatsoever.

Four weeks to publication of Peace Makers geni.us/PeaceMakers! Time for another🧵on one of the stories in the book. This week, how the FO in London coped with blitz and blackout while at full throttle on policy work. Part of the answer: everyone was expected to muck in. 1/6

The government has created a vacuum which is being filled by dopey ideas from opposition parties. It needs to show it is gripping the crisis (and making the case against such measures!). Latest from @instituteforgovernment.org.uk www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...

Boston Globe mock front page from April 9, 2016. Date says April 9, 2017, with giant headline “DEPORTATIONS TO BEGIN” and “Markets sink as trade war looms.”

Ten years ago today, in April 2016, the Boston Globe printed a satirical front page imagining a future Trump administration. The page was called "alarmist," "hyperbolic," "dystopian." But we’ve put up with so much since then it now looks like . . . a slow Thursday?

Incredible footage from a United Airlines flight of the Artemis II launch.